Ecuador continues to be in the eye of the hurricane after having raided the Mexican Embassy in Quito to capture Jorge Glas, the former vice president convicted and investigated for corruption. While the international community condemns Ecuador’s action, which violates the Vienna Convention on diplomatic headquarters, the Ecuadorian authorities indicate that it was the Mexican government that first violated the Caracas Convention by granting asylum to a person convicted of common crimes and that the statements by the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, were clear interference in domestic affairs.
When asked by journalist Milton Pérez of Teleamazonas about who gave the order to raid the Embassy on April 5, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld – who has no previous experience in diplomacy and comes from the business sector – revealed that, despite Having knowledge of the consequences, President Daniel Noboa gave the order to enter the diplomatic headquarters: “Of course (the president gave the order). He (Daniel Noboa) is the one who dictates foreign policy… What corresponds to us as the Foreign Ministry is first to inform him, through an extensive report, and second to advise him. Of course he is told what the consequences of one act or another may be and that was on the table.”
Sommerfeld was reiterative in saying that “the President was defending democracy, the security of the country.” The Chancellor said that Noboa had information that Glas was going to escape that night. Since Mexico granted him asylum, one hours before the raid on the embassy, and after López Obrador’s statements about sending a military plane to pick up the Mexican ambassador Raquel Serur, who was expelled from Ecuador, speculation began about an operation for the former vice president to leave with the Mexican authorities.
Speculation was based on the escape of María de los Ángeles Duarte, a former minister of Correism and a fugitive who was sheltered in the Argentine Embassy in Quito and who escaped in March 2023. Although the case was not clarified, the then Ecuadorian legislators They indicated that Duarte would have left the Argentine diplomatic headquarters in an accredited mission vehicle. These vehicles cannot be searched by the host country’s police.
The Secretary of Communication, Roberto Izurieta, also referred to this in an interview with Ecuavisa. There he said that the decision for the public force to enter the Mexican Embassy took hours and was very difficult. “As we also saw in the statement of the Mexican Embassy official (Roberto Canseco) it is: ‘We were about to leave.’ Who is he referring to (when he says) we were about to leave? The Ambassador was not there. Who are you referring to (with the phrase) we were about to leave? That was the urgency, that was the seriousness, the gravity. But, above all, we must understand what our responsibilities are? That is, if we are faced with a situation that we have not sought, because it has been aggravated by the political rhetoric of the President of Mexico in his ‘sabatinas’ of recent days (referring to AMLO’s morning sessions), aggravated with Phrases that I prefer—in order not to increase tensions or disputes—not to repeat. We did not seek to be in this situation. The decisions we had were very difficult, but our first responsibility is to the independent Ecuadorian Justice system, so that impunity is not allowed again in the eyes and sight of the State,” said Izurieta.
Both Sommerfeld and Izurieta have referred to the seriousness that Jorge Glas’s escape would have entailed: “Imagine what would have happened in the country. In addition, there was clear interference by a State in the internal affairs of Ecuador,” said the Chancellor. When asked by Pérez about why Glas was not captured on the street: “These are strategies that do not correspond to the Foreign Ministry. “I couldn’t tell you,” she responded.
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